How to Buy Inexpensive American-Made Apparel and Stay Out of Wal-MartOur Buy American Mention of the Week!by Roger SimmermakerFebruary 16, 2004

The good people at Alore have a great thing going. Their 100% American-made apparel can be found in cutting-edge retail stores like Hot Topic and can also be ordered direct by consumers as well. A peek at their catalog shows prices for both bulk orders that retailers use and per-unit orders for individuals. Their per-unit prices are so low that you might think you were mistakenly getting the bulk order price instead.

From basic t-shirts and tank tops to long sleeve jerseys and sweatshirts, you’ll find a wide variety of choices at www.alore.net. Their low prices add more ammunition to the argument that consumers don’t need to rely on Wal-Mart or other Chinese apparel sources to avoid paying an arm and a leg to keep clothes on their back. And if for some reason you don’t like ordering over the Internet, the good people at Alore will be happy to mail you a catalog.

Alore is also proud to be a sponsor of Farm Aid, which has raised over $24 million to support a “strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture.” And they support American agriculture in word and in deed since the company only buys cotton grown by U.S. farmers. If more apparel companies did the same, the government and U.S. taxpayers might be able to wean themselves off of large farm subsidies, which would be a money-saver for American taxpayers and free up more U.S. treasury funds for education and other vital public interests. Maybe we could start by educating our children to realize the value of a healthy U.S. manufacturing and farming sector.

This of course is not to say that we should not support Agricultural subsidies when necessary, and with American industries being injured right and left in today’s economy, American farmers need subsidies to keep doing what they do best. As Missouri Republican Sam Graves put it last September, “there’s not a farmer out there who would rather be dependent on farm subsidies and not good markets, myself included.” Graves is a farmer himself and serves on the House Agriculture Committee.

So pay a visit to www.alore.net and browse through their All-American products. By supporting them, you’ll be supporting the American worker and the American farmer, and you’ll probably be making a more powerful, positive impact on the U.S. economy than you may have first imagined.